Book description
With Plays Unpleasant, Shaw issued a radical challenge to his
audiences' complacency and exposed social evils through his
dramatization of the moral conflicts between youthful idealism and
economic reality, promiscuity and marriage, and the duties of women to
others and to themselves. His first play, Widowers' Houses, depicts
Harry Trench's dilemma on learning that the inheritance of his fianc e
comes from her father's income as a slum landlord. In The Philanderer,
charismatic Leonard Charteris proposes marriage to Grace, while he is
still involved with the beautiful Julia Craven - who is not inclined to
give him up so easily. And in Mrs Warren's Profession, Vivie Warren is
forced to reconsider her own future when she discovers that her mother's
immoral earnings funded her genteel upbringing.
Dublin-born George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an active Socialist
and a brilliant platform speaker. He was strongly critical of London
theatre and closely associated with the intellectual revival of
British drama.
Dan H. Laurence has edited SHAW'S COLLECTED LETTERS and COLLECTED
PLAYS with their Prefaces. He was Literary Advisor to the Shaw Estate
until his retirement in 1990.
David Edgar has written widely on theatre and his original plays
include DESTINY, MAYDAYS and PENTECOST.
